Free Republic

On Thursday, in “Mid-East Coup: As Russia Pounds Militant Targets, Iran Readies Ground Invasions While Saudis Panic”, we attempted to cut through all of the Western and Russian media propaganda on the way to describing what Moscow’s involvement in Syria actually portends for the global balance of power. Here are a few excerpts that summarize what’s taking shape in the Middle East: Putin looks to have viewed this as the ultimate geopolitical win-win. That is, Russia gets to i) expand its influence in the Middle East in defiance of Washington and its allies, a move that also helps to...

It began with the arrests of a handful of children in 2011. Since then it's exploded into the biggest humanitarian crisis since the Second World War. Syria's civil war has left more than 300,000 people dead and forced 10.6 million -- nearly half the population -- out of their homes. How did it come to this? Explore the events that have shaped the crisis since 2011.